7:30 BELLS: Writing Outside Leads to Writing with an Impassioned Heart

To the bafflement of my friends, I’ll go to extreme lengths to write outside. In the wind and cold, I write bundled up in coats. In the rain, I write beneath a porch or deck roof. In the sun, I write in a folding chair with a flip-up sun roof—a clothespin cloth protecting the back of my laptop screen.I even chose a laptop with a matte screen--less glare.

Starting in late spring, through the summer and into the fall, I take my folding chair to various parks, beaches, docks, and gardens to write outside. If the temperature is 65 degrees or warmer, I can do this comfortably. 60 degrees is a stretch, but I’ve been known to brave it.

My friends and fellow writers ask two questions about my passion for writing outside. First: why? And second: don’t you get distracted? I have the same answer for both questions. Pausing from work to revel in the beauty of the light on the water, or the wind on a tree, isn’t a distraction. Rather, it fills my soul, refreshing and enlivening my heart in all its deepest places. This leads to better writing, because that comes from the same deep places. Most of all, I love writing outside because it I feel alive to all the glory of the world--filled with the steady ringing of the bells.

This summer I will be posting photos of some of the places I go to write: so watch for the blue chair!

LORE OF THE BELL: 

Working somewhere beautiful makes the bells ring.